Gratitude is one of the high-ranked values in human society. All traditions and religious beliefs converge in the acceptance that gratitude is invaluable and indispensable. Gratitude is one of the social values that have a special commemoration day. Globally, World Gratitude Day is celebrated on 21 September every year.
Doctors and paediatric physical therapists recommend that children should not be made to carry heavy weights exceeding 15 per cent of their body weight. The average weight for a 12-year-old child (both boys and girls) is about 40 kilos. 15 per cent of 40 kilos is 6 kilos. Do we see this as a problem to be addressed, especially in Tanzania?
At many night parties, especially for weddings, birthdays, and others, children dance to entertain adults. This is not new, however, it has taken a different turn. In the past, it was more of a show choreography where children knew their place and delivered just as is appropriate for decent and respectful entertainment. However, the trouble now is that children are made to dance to indecent songs in indecent manners as they see on the internet and on TV.
In looking at matters of children, the mistake we often make is looking at them with the eye of an adult. The result of this is seeing things that children need and enjoy as boring, useless and a waste of time. There is oftentimes a temptation to ignore looking at playing with the eyes of children.
Traditionally, parents and guardians have moral responsibilities to support, protect, provide for, and correct the children under their care, with the goal of helping them develop healthily into their adulthood. This ideal is still in place, though in practice it lingers delicately, as parenting generally becomes more and more lenient by the day.
Skills that have evolved in society for centuries will not magically come back to life unless they are progressively promoted, valued, and passed on through generations.
Information is not necessarily true just because it originates from a certain person, group, media, authority, public figure, expert, etc. Schemes to disinform people have already overtaken us and found their way into different crucial systems by which people get themselves informed.
Children should be taught that being disabled is not something to use against people and make them feel ashamed, less valued, or of no substantial contribution.
The children who this year 2023 are learning under trees are technically expected to globally compete with their peers in the job market in 18 years. Are we expecting them to run at the same pace as other children in the country and the world at large while they are left behind in all aspects of learning?
The fact that being trusted to undertake responsibilities without being watched has repeatedly proved not to work necessitates the need to bring in a way of ‘watching’ and keeping record of the movements of service providers who work directly with children in their respective facilities.